The CBS summer series “Extant” revolves around an unborn child (and the question of how Halle Berry’s character managed to get pregnant on a solo mission in space). Also key to the plot, however, is the unusual kid she has at home on Earth. Ethan, an apple-cheeked 8-year-old boy-bot, is a lifelike invention that astronaut Molly Woods is raising as a son with her husband (Goran Visnjic), a scientist with Dr. Frankenstein issues.

Robotic offspring represent a strange, narrow niche in the sub-genre of android sci-fi. The category includes the work of “Extant” executive producer Steven Spielberg, who directed the movie “A.I.,” about an automaton abandoned by human parents. Spielberg offered “Extant” producers some advice on the fine-tuning of the Ethan character.

Because he looks like a typical kid (not including the battery pack that pops out of his back), actor Pierce Gagnon was instructed to tamp down his natural childish “exuberance,” says series creator and executive producer Mickey Fisher. Spielberg urged him to build pauses into Ethan’s reactions that would “give his processors time to work.”

Ethan is his father’s flagship effort to improve on the soul-less bots that serve the futuristic society. “If you can imbue an artificial intelligence with a sense of compassion [during its ‘childhood’], you can stop the future of them regarding humans like ants,” says showrunner and executive producer Greg Walker.

“Extant” producers consulted a robotics company and an expert on artificial intelligence to justify how or why Ethan would eat or drink, for example. One potential answer: To supply moisture or lubrication to his synthetic skin.

In one scene, Ethan throws a temper tantrum over an ice cream cone. As Molly tries to grab his arm, her expression reads, “Where is the off switch on this thing?” Walker says, “What you’ll see is Molly’s season-long struggle to love her robot son. And for Ethan, if you’re programmed to seek love and you’re not getting it from the ground zero of parental love, it can be very confusing.”

Parents might relate to the notion of offspring that don’t always follow protocol. Of course, that’s a challenge that’s been explored in stories going back to “Pinocchio.” Here’s a look at some automaton sons and daughters of the screen and their encounters with feelings, starting with “Extant”:

“Astro Boy” (1963)

In addition to being one of Japan’s first anime TV series, it also has the distinction of being pretty tragic. A mad inventor creates a super-powered robot boy to replace his dead son. Who is killed in the opening scene. Of a cartoon intended for kids. But when Astro Boy fails to grow like a normal child, his creator disowns him. Based on a manga comic first published in 1952, Astro Boy has been remade several times, including as an American feature film released in 2009.

Dad: “You’re nothing but a machine, like a refrigerator or a dishwasher.”

“Small Wonder” (1985)

After an engineer brings an experimental robot home, shenanigans ensue when his clan tries to pass her off as a family member. Vicki (the Voice Input Child Identicant played by Tiffany Brissette) has a cheeky older brother, an everpresent frilly outfit and a monotone voice intended to accentuate the punchlines. The series ran for four seasons.

Robotic abilities: According to the theme song, “She’s fantastic, made of plastic, microchips here and there…”

Poignant programming: “Honey, the real question is, can it be programmed to have human values and emotions, or even human faults? What a challenge.”

“D.A.R.Y.L.” (1985)

Government experiment in artificial intelligence results in an awkward acronym (Data Analyzing Robot Youth Lifeform) and a robot resembling a 10-year-old boy. Faux kid escapes, loses memory, and attempts to live like a real boy with foster parents and obligatory wisecracking pal, a neighbor named Turtle. Government tries to reclaim its property, leading to a chase with Daryl at the controls of a fighter jet.

Robotic abilities: With superhuman reflexes, Daryl excels at Atari’s Pole Position and baseball, much to the delight of his foster dad (Michael McKean).

Poignant progamming: Daryl to the dying scientist who liberated him: “If I was a little bit older, you could have given me a medical program….that would have been helpful.”

“Star Trek: The Next Generation” (1990)

Data turns into “dad” when he downloads his software into a new body and lets it choose its own gender and appearance. She learns the ropes of human social interaction while working in the bar run by Whoopi Goldberg’s character, Guinan. When a Starfleet admiral tries to remove her from Data’s custody, Lal gets her synthetic heart broken.

In Spielberg’s sci-fi fantasy, which he took over from Stanley Kubrick, Haley Joel Osment plays David, an android who displays love for his owner-parents (and also creeps them out). After the son David was meant to replace recovers from his terminal illness, the futuristic Pinocchio is released into the wild. With his robot teddy bear, he avoids destruction at an anti-mech festival, gets mentored by a robot gigolo (Jude Law), and wanders a Manhattan flooded by global warming.

Robotic abilities: “Until you were born, robots didn’t dream, didn’t desire until we told them what to want,” David’s creator, played by William Hurt, tells the bot.

Poignant programming: His mind blown by his own backstory, David replies, “My brain is falling out.”

About Speakeasy

Speakeasy is a blog covering media, entertainment, celebrity and the arts. The publication is produced by Barbara Chai and Jonathan Welsh with contributions from the Wall Street Journal staff and others. Write to us at speakeasy@wsj.com or follow us on Twitter at @WSJSpeakeasy or individually @barbarachai.